From 1960 to 1990, islands across the Pacific gained independence or self-government. In the years following this, Ian Johnstone and Michael Powles interviewed the Pacific people in key leadership positions in the lead-up to and achievement of independence, many of whom became well-known in the Pacific and more widely. This book presents a nation-by-nation... more...

Personnel serving in Egypt in the Great War often complained that the popular impression of the campaigns, still widely held, was that it was a sideshow, with troops enjoying a holiday among the pyramids and the 'fleshpots' of Cairo. Actually they faced appalling heat, abrasive sand, poor rations and water shortages. In the desolation of the Western... more...

In Niger, where access to rail and air travel requires overcoming many obstacles, roads are the nation’s lifeline. For a year in the early 1990s, Peter Chilson traveled this desert country by automobile to experience West African road culture. He crisscrossed the same roads again and again with bush taxi driver Issoufou Garba in order to learn... more...